DONATE

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

And yet MORE Nefarious Obama Administration Activities

This action designed by the Obama Administration and instrumented by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department to target business and banks involved in an enterprise Obama considers questionable has to be yet another illegal activity that should be added to Obama’s already growing high crimes and misdemeanors; viz. Operation Choke Point. Operation Choke Point aims at some real fraud such as in the porn industry, Ponzi schemes, gun sale cons, and so on. Those targets are legitimate for law enforcement to prevent a crime. The thing is the Justice Department (no doubt per Obama political agenda) is targeting legitimate legal business simply because the operation is a snub to Left Wing ideology; e.g. licensed gun industry, home school industry, home based businesses not dependent on pyramid and Ponzi schemes, child care and more.

Launched in early 2013, "Operation Choke Point" is a joint effort by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the bank regulators to limit access to the bank payments system by various businesses. Initially targeted at small-dollar nonbank lenders, Choke Point has grown to cover a variety of legitimate, legal businesses that just happen to be unpopular with DOJ, such as gun dealers and porn stars. Initial responses from DOJ claimed such efforts were limited to illegal businesses committing fraud. A recent report by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reveals DOJ's claims to be false. In today's economy, almost any economic activity depends on access to the payments system; allowing DOJ, without trial or a right to appeal, to arbitrarily limit access represents an almost unprecedented abuse of power.

I have mentioned this before in that Conservative realists like to point out that any impeachment is a waste of time because if the Republican majority in the House passes impeachment, the Senate probably could not muster the 60 vote minimum to convict either Obama or Holder. And that is even if a 2014 new Republican Senate majority takes over. But I say whether the impeachment process is successful or not, it shows voters that Conservatives in both Houses of Congress understand what is illegal AND it signals to Obama that his Executive Order fiat can become so outrageous that voters will pressure even their Dem Party incumbents in the next 2016 election which includes the Office of POTUS.

Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is calling for the dismantling of what he calls a secretive initiative launched by the Obama administration in early 2013.

Critics say that Operation Choke Point, so dubbed by Department of Justice officials under Attorney General Eric Holder, seeks to weed out businesses from the marketplace that the Obama administration considers objectionable. According to The Wall Street Journal, it was an outgrowth of the Financial Fraud Task Force, established by President Obama’s executive order early in his first term.

The initiative, Issa said last week, is a slippery slope:

“If you empower the government to pick winners and losers within a lawful enterprise, then there is no place to stop.”

Initially, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, officials targeted small-dollar, nonbank lenders. But it grew to include other legal, legitimate businesses such as gun dealers and tobacco vendors at Walmart and Bass Pro Shop.

“Fraud should be prosecuted,” Norbert Michel, research fellow in financial regulations at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “They don’t have to use the banking system to shut out every single player in an industry to do that.”

House Republicans already have passed legislation prohibiting funding for Operation Choke Point. This week, the Justice Department initiative comes under further scrutiny in three House settings:

·This morning at 10, the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on the Justice Department initiative.

·Thursday at 9:30 a.m., the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on regulatory reformwill hold a hearing entitled “Guilty Until Proven Innocent?” on whether Justice has the legal authority to execute the operation and possible collateral damage to legitimate businesses.

One official at Justice, quoted anonymously in a Wall Street Journal report last summer, said the initiative was intended to change “the structures within the financial system that allow all kinds of fraudulent merchants to operate,” with the intent of “choking them off from the very air they need to survive.”

By “air,” the DOJ means money. The Obama administration uses Operation Choke Point to intimidates (sic) banks from doing business with merchants it deems “high risk,” Issa and other critics say.

For example, Issa said in his remarks last week, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation officials make “inappropriate” phone calls to banks and payday lenders, pressuring them to sever ties with businesses the government considers “reputational risks.”

Mark Calabria, Cato’s director of financial regulation studies, said FDIC pressure is an enormous weight over the financial industry.

“When the federal government maintains the discretion to decide which bank gets rescued and which does not, it should be clear that banks in practice have little choice but to cooperate,” Calabria said.

Despite his opposition to the initiative, Issa has yet to endorse legislation to end Operation Choke Point. Instead, he said:

We’ve got to do what baseball pitchers do anytime somebody’s crowding the plate. And that is, we’re going to put the ball close enough that either they’re going to jump back, or we’re going to hit them with the ball. … What they’re doing is wrong, and we’ve got to show that.

We know you’re busy. And we’re quite certain you care deeply about the future of our country.

We care, too. We care about your communities, your families, and how Washington’s decisions are going to impact you.

More and more people are grabbing bites of news from mobile devices on the go – and they need a place where they can find digestible, trusted news on the most important policy debate of the day.

That’s why the Heritage Foundation team created a digital-first, multimedia news platform called The Daily Signal.

The Daily Signal provides policy and political news as well as conservative commentary and policy analysis – in a fresh, visually rich, readable format for your desktop, tablet or phone.

We are committed to news coverage that is accurate, fair and trustworthy. As we surveyed the media landscape, it became clear to us that the need for honest, thorough, responsible reporting has never been more critical. That’s a challenge in today’s fast-moving world. And it’s a challenge we’re willing to accept.

We are dedicated to developing a news outlet that cuts straight to the heart of key political and policy arguments – not spin reported as news.